Monday, October 20, 2008

This bridge was built for a neighbor. He has a small koi pond in his back yard and wanted a garden bridge for added decoration. He didn't want to spring for cedar since he plans on painting it next year to match his fence, so it is made of pressure treated pine.

The planks are made of 1x6 and the spindles are 1x1 with a standard railing from the home improvement store.

A friend got a canoe from his father-in-law and needed a way to store it off of the ground and high enough so that it wouldn't become a home for rodents. This is what I came up with.

There are a few things that I did -not normal - on this project. The first was that the only tool that I used that required electricity was the cordless drill. Everything else was done by hand. Because this is only going to be used to hold a canoe - and will be outdoors - none of the wood was squared. Just standard pressure treated 2x4's with a 2x6 for the base.

All of the wood was cut by hand by my wonderful daughter. Since she always wants to help me, I figured this was a safe project for her to help with.

The through tenons were cut by hand - Adrienne cut them, and did the rough shaping with a chisel. I finished the shaping and cut the mortises with the drill and a Forstner bit. The tenons are screwed in from the underside with a 2" deck screw.

For the legs, I cut small mortises for them to sit in as well. They are bolted from underneath with a couple of 1/4 lag screws. On the stretchers, this was the one place that I lacked the creativity to hide the fastener.

My son, Matt went with me to set it up. We delivered it in 4 pieces and set it up on site. The two end frames and the two stretchers so it was just a matter of bolting the stretchers back onto the frames. This was the only way that it was fitting in the mini-van. The unit when put together was just short of 7 feet wide and 4 feet deep. The canoe sits 18 inches off the ground.